Dean slid back off the log and lay on the ground, keeping his foot up on the log, trying to get more elevation. As he lay there Sam busied himself getting them something for lunch. "So, what do you think a mermaid is doing in the pacific northwest, in the middle of nowhere?"
Sam stood over him, looking down at him and his foot for a moment and then was out of sight again as he continued his lunch prep. "You got me, Dean. Maybe she's indigenous...born here?"
"Seriously? Nah, man! Mermaids live in the ocean!"
"Oh, and you've met many mermaids, have you?" Sam came over and nudged him in the ribs with his foot. "Sit up." Dean struggled back into an upright position, propped his back against another log he pulled over. Sam handed him a plate of beans and rice. "Spicy, just the way you like it."
"Thanks Sammy."
They fell into silence as they ate, each lost in his own thoughts on mermaids and old growth forests.
"Mernado!" Dean suddenly blurted out. He had a huge grin on his face.
"Excuse me?" Sam didn't quite catch what he had said.
"That's how she got here! Mernado!"
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Don't you watch t.v.? Sharknado?" Upon seeing his brother's blank face Dean enlightened him. "Water tornadoes dump man eating sharks on an unsuspecting town? C'mon, man! You need to keep yourself abreast of current events!"
"Dean, I hardly think a B rated movie counts as current events."
They fell into silence again as Dean had another helping of Sam's beans and rice and a bottle of water.
"Mericane!" Sam gave his brother a bitch face. "You know...mermaid infested hurricane? Well in this case only one mermaid, but you get the picture." Sam didn't offer a response. "Seriously...you have any better ideas?"
Sam thought for a moment. "Well, if you want to play Let's-come-up-with-the-most-implausible-scenario-possible game, then...how about...she got scooped up in the bucket of a forest fire fighting plane and dumped here during a forest fire."
Dean just looked at his brother like he was totally disappointed in him. "Why would the plane go all the way to the ocean when there's a lake right here? Can you please be serious?" Dean got offered another bitch face but he was too busy licking his plate clean to notice.
Sam took their plates and spoons and washed them down and cleaned up. "Sammy?" Dean called to him a few minutes later.
"Yeah?"
"Come here and help a dude out."
Sam came over frowning. "What's wrong?"
"I need to take a leak, bro. Help me up."
Sam sighed with a grin and helped his brother up and over to the trees. On the way back to the site, Sam scrutinized Dean's ankle. "I don't like the look of your ankle. The swelling doesn't seem to be going down."
Dean looked down at his ankle once he was back at the campfire. "Well we only have R.C.E."
"What?"
"RCE...Rest, Compression and Elevation. There's no I in our rice." Sam pursed his lips together in thought. "We could go back down to the lake." Dean offered.
"Why? So we can listen to the mermaid screech at us some more?"
"No, man, that water was cold! It's probably the closest thing we have to ice out here."
"But Dean..you go in that water and we run the risk of her snatching you again."
"Listen. You set up a log right close to the water where I can sit and just rest my foot and ankle in the water. It doesn't have to be deep. How can she get me without me seeing her coming a mile away?"
Sam thought about it for a moment. "I don't like it, but I don't see what other choice we have. You really do need to get some ice on that." He sat there, arms folded across his chest. Even though he had just agreed with his brother, Sam sat unmoving.
"So? You gonna sit there all day or help me down to the lake?"
"Just because I agree with you doesn't mean I like it." Sam sighed and pushed himself off the downed tree he had been leaning against. "You stay here while I go down and set up a log or something for you." Sam headed done the hill toward the lake without a backward glance.
"Okay. I'll just wait here then!" Dean called after his brother with a grimace at his ankle. He had been hiding how bad it was from Sam. If it was just a sprain, it was the worst he had ever had. His ankle was throbbing and he couldn't wait to dunk it in the cold water of the lake. Swelling aside, he was hoping the cold water would act as a numbing agent to the pain. Screw the mermaid and the tornado she rode in on.
At one point Dean heard the screech of their mermaid and Sammy yelling at it to shut it's cakehole. Dean was so proud.
Sam came back a few minutes later. "Okay, you ready?"
"Born." Sam wrapped an arm around his brother's back and hooked his hand under the far armpit and lugged Dean to his feet.
"You know what?" Sam asked as he turned his back to his brother. "Just wrap your arms around my neck or this will take all day."
"Screw this! I can walk!"
"Dean...just do it!"
Dean grumped but did as he was asked. Sam crouched down in front of him and he wrapped his arms around Sammy's neck. Sam reach up and grabbed Dean's upper arms and jerked up on him as he stood up, effectively pulling him up onto his back.
"Woo! Piggy-back ride! Go horsey!" Dean squealed in Sam's ear.
"Shut it, Dean, or I swear I'll drop you." Sam started off down the slope and into the trees.
Dean kept quiet on the way down to the lake. Not because he couldn't think of about fifty smart ass things to say to his brother, but because he really could only focus on the pain in his ankle.
When they got down to the water's edge, Sam gently lowered his brother to the ground, holding his shoulder so he didn't lose his balance and fall. Dean jerked away from his brother and sat down to roll up his pantlegs. Dean was never one to show injury or weakness, even to his brother, if he could help it. Once his pants were rolled up out of the way, he hopped over to the log Sammy had set up about a foot out into the water.
It was bliss. He sat down on the log and let his feet into the water in front of him. Looking out into the lake, he didn't see her. The water at his feet was only about eight inches deep. There was no way she was going to be grabbing him without him knowing about it. He sat there for about fifteen minutes while Sam went back up to the camp site to tend to the fire pit. His ankle was already numbing out, just as he'd hoped.
Out of nowhere, the mermaid's head popped up out of the water not ten feet away. She let out a short screech and Dean covered his ears. "Damn, woman! I don't speak screech, alright?! Shut it!"
Sam came back down out of the trees at that moment and saw her out in the water. "What does she want?"
"How the hell should I know? A dictionary?" Dean lowered his hands when it was evident she wasn't going to scream at them anymore. He felt a tickle at his feet and looked down. "Sam, there's nothing in this lake that will bite me, is there?"
"Other than the mermaid? No."
"Cause I just felt something swim past my foot." Dean was leaning over, scrutinizing the water at his feet.
"Probably just a minnow." Sam answered as he walked across the shore toward Dean. Just then, Dean flew into the water. It looked as if something had grabbed his feet and just yanked him out into the lake. His arms flew up and out and as he went in, his head smacked the log hard enough that Sam heard the hollow 'thunk' from fifteen feet away. "Dean!" Sam ran toward the log, frantically searching the lake for any signs of his brother.
Dean felt something, very much like rope, wrap around his good ankle and give a hard tug. He flew off the log and into the water. He felt his head bounce off the log on the way in. It must have knocked him pretty loopy, because he could have sworn he heard voices: "...save...not harm...me free..." It was a very beautiful and melodic voice. He felt as if he could listen to it all day but his chest was really starting to hurt and it was very distracting.
"Dean!" Sam yelled again. How long could his brother stay under? Just as he thought that, Dean came sputtering to the surface about twenty feet out in the lake.
Dean realized his chest hurt because he wasn't breathing and he wasn't breathing because he was under water. His head cleared in seconds and he frantically swam for the surface. He gasped for air as his head broke free of the water. The mermaid surfaced a few feet away and screeched at him. "Damn it! Stop!" Dean yelled at her. He could have sworn that she gave him a Sammy-classic bitch face and she swam over, put her hands on his head and dunked him back below the surface.
"I won't harm you." The mermaid said, in perfectly fine english. "Please, stop struggling."
